Pragmaticism

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, in the 20th Century, Charles Sanders Peirce and William James initiated a new American philosophical movement called American pragmatism, which states that people act out of a desire to find what truly exists. The author points out that, as pragmatism evolved, it began to differ greatly from past philosophies because it changed the definition of truth from a theory-laden world to a monistic philosophy focusing instead on individualism. The paper relates that, after his close study of Kant's work, Josiah Royce added new ideas of idealism to this philosophy, which he later renamed pragmaticism. The author states that Peirce thought that the entire universe was one mind moving towards a rational end based on love. The paper summarized that Royce stated that if one can't express something as an idea it is not possible.

From the Paper:

"Prior to Kant signs were understood as immobile tools used to create sense of the world. Peirce's close study of Kant led him to conceive a triadic relation of signs. Peirce concluded that signs can be an action or power, which is, or involves, a collaboration of three subjects (Kolak 442). He had found a problem with language and stated that language is just a noise people make and that these noises are not connected to reality at all (Kolak 456). These would be a sign, its object, and its interpretant. First, there is a sign that is basically a term that is normally said to represent or mean something. Next, its object is the thing that the sign signified. Finally, its interpretant is how a sign represents the object (Kolak 442). To summarize this theory, it means variable "A means B to C" (Kolak 455). The interpretant is something like a mind or mental process on how we see the sign being signified. Peirce thought that a sign itself was meaningless until it was interpreted and concluded that there are four different kinds of interpretants: emotional, energetic, logical and habitual (Kolak 456)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Kolak, Daniel. Lovers of Wisdom: An Introduction To Philosophy. California: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2001.
• Peirce: The Pragmatist Principle. 21 Aug. 2005. Philosophy Pages from Garth Kemerling. 7 Dec. 2006. http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/6b.htm#bel

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